Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini (* 1636 in Venice (?); † December 12, 1707 in Vienna ) was an Italian architect , graphic artist , stage and costume designer who was in the service of the imperial court in Vienna from 1652 until his death. He is considered one of the most important “theater engineers” in baroque Europe and is a master of the art of drawing .

Life

Origin and birth

Lodovico Ottavio was the son of a certain Grazia and the theater architect Giovanni Burnacini from Cesena , from whom he learned the arts of theater architecture, stage machinery and set design at an early age.

The birthday and place of birth of Lodovico Ottavio are still unknown. With regard to the place of birth, recent research has not been able to confirm the references in the early literature to Mantua , which were later adopted by most lexicons and reference works. No archival documents or contemporary sources could be brought to light for previously accepted orders from Giovanni Burnacini in the same city.

Since Giovanni Burnacini's intense and continuous artistic activity in Venice has been documented as early as 1636, it seems plausible, however, that Lodovico Ottavio was born in the lagoon city.

Education and Venetian Influence

Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini: “Ponte di Rialto” with Pantalone , end of the 17th century Vienna, Theater Museum.

Venice was one of the most important theatrical cities in Europe in the middle of the 17th century and Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini must already have seen Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini in the workshop of his father, who from the 1940s headed renowned theaters such as the San Cassian , the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Teatro Santissimi Apostoli to have come into contact with the theater world as a child and to have observed the zealous cooperation of impresari , engineers, composers, musicians, actors and dancers etc. It seems plausible that Lodovico Ottavio saw the famous knives (disguises) on the Calli and Campi of Venice during Carnival ; He was probably given the opportunity to experience the popular Commedia dell'arte performances several times. Numerous references in his graphic work, which arose decades later, point to the weighting of such experiences in his youth. In any case, he must have enjoyed intensive training in his father's workshop, because some early engravings based on Giovanni's designs, such as one with the title Trionfo del SS.Sacramento (Prague, 1652), prove the tightness and - due to the quality of the engraving - certainly long-term cooperation between father and son.

The move to Vienna in 1651

Because of his artistic merits Giovanni Burnacini was in 1651 by Emperor Ferdinand III . called to Vienna and took the sixteen-year-old Lodovico Ottavio with him. A few months later they were followed by the entire family, who from now on lived in Vienna.

The Burnacinis' relocation to Vienna was probably due to an initiative by Eleonora Gonzaga-Nevers who - through Andrea Zani (documented 1630–1651), who was a mediator from Bologna - made intensive contacts with the Venetian ambience and which also moved to Vienna in 1651 came to the third wife of Emperor Ferdinand III. to become.

Between Vienna, Regensburg and Prague

Jacob von Sandrart after Giovanni Burnacini: Landscape with a stormy sea from the libretto of the opera ›L'inganno d'amore‹, Regensburg 1653. Washington, Library of Congress, Music Division.

From this point on, the Burnacinis were responsible for the design of festivals and the construction of theaters including the invention of all necessary decorations for the imperial court. At the imperial court theater they introduced and perfected their own system of convertible canvas sets ( backdrops ), which had been tried and tested in Italy . The most famous stage works from this period, which were furnished by the Burnacini, include the tournament opera La gara by Alberto Vimina (Vienna, 1652) and L'inganno d'Amore by Benedetto Ferrari , which was released on March 3, 1653 in Regensburg on the occasion of the Reichstag (December 1652 - May 1654) was premiered in a specially built wooden theater house. Various works followed, including for ephemeral buildings such as a "Triumph of the Most Holy Sacrament" in Prague in 1652 and the Castrum Doloris for Archduke Ferdinand IV. From 1654, of which an engraving in the Albertina in Vienna (Inv.No. DG 2018 / 207) is kept.

The death of the father in 1655

After his untimely death on July 21, 1655, Lodovico Ottavio had to take over the father's agendas and pay for the entire family, consisting of five siblings. Nevertheless, after the government takeover by Emperor Leopold I in 1657, Burnacini was not confirmed in this office, but it was first from 1 July 1657 Giovanni Battista Angelini committed (1658 †), the architect and set designer of his uncle Archduke Leopold Wilhelm during his governorship in Brussels .

The imperial theater engineer

Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini: Carnival float with figures from the Commedia dell'arte . End of the 17th century, Vienna, Theater Museum.

After Angelini's death, Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini was employed as the imperial court architect and set designer on January 1, 1659. From the beginning, Lodovico Ottavio had to prove himself with all the skills of his art, because plays, concerts and ballets were performed almost every day at the Viennese court. Religious holidays, the Carnival , state events as well as joyful events at the court such as weddings, births, coronations, etc. gave rise to naturally even larger festivities. To do this, the young theater engineer not only had to design decorations and costumes, but also build entire theaters, invent stage machines and floats to amuse the emperor and his guests. Although interrupted by the plague in 1679 and the siege of the Turks in 1683 , there was an extremely lively cultural life in Vienna in the late 17th century, in which Burnacini played a key role.

The comedy house on Rosstummelplatz

Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini: Happy Brighella , Arlecchino in Mi-Parti and "voracious" nurse. Late 17th century Vienna, Theater Museum.

The above-mentioned wooden theater, which Giovanni had built in Regensburg in 1653 on the occasion of the Reichstag, was dismantled and shipped over the Danube to Vienna, only to be re-erected in the summer of 1659 at the request of Leopold I on the “imperial Thumbelplatz”. This house on Rosstummelplatz, i.e. the area of ​​today's Josefsplatz , where the State Hall of the Austrian National Library is located, became an extremely popular comedy house. It was an imposing theater “in the size and height of quite a church building” with a spacious ground floor and two tiers with 60 boxes (“Zimmerl”), which is said to have provided space for “several thousand people”. The stage set allowed for a change of scenery "well achterley manner without drawing a single curtain". Although this comedy house was demolished in 1662 due to the opposition of the Jesuits and perhaps also in connection with the death of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm , the uncle of Emperor Leopold I, its construction and use mark an important episode in the history of the Commedia dell'arte in Vienna , because with the involvement of well-known acting troupes there was a brisk game operation: They played "every day except Friday". The most famous comedians in Europe, such as Arlecchino Domenico Biancolelli , performed in Vienna . Possibly in memory of the comedies played between 1660 and 1662, Burnacini later drew many of his grotesques and Commedia dell'arte figures, which are now kept in the Theater Museum in Vienna.

The theater on the curtain wall

Frans Geffels after Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, interior view of the theater on the curtain wall during a performance of Il pomo d'oro by Antonio Cesti in 1668.

Between 1666 and 1668 he built the so-called theater on the curtain wall according to his own designs , which rose next to the castle bastion on the site of today's court library, near Josefsplatz .

Matthäus Küsel after Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, The Hellmouth in the opera Il pomo d'oro .

In this theater the most magnificent operas of the Leopoldine court were staged, primarily Antonio Cesti's magnificent opera Il pomo d'oro from 1668, with which Leopold I wanted to celebrate his first wedding with the Spanish Infanta Margarita Teresa or her 17th birthday. For this opulent, complex stage work, Burnacini created 23 stage decorations that cast a spell over the audience through rapid transformation effects and various types of stage machines. Thanks to the prints by Matthäus Küsel and Frans Geffels based on Burnacini's designs, this opera and its setting became known all over the world. These and other operatic works, the libretti of which were magnificently engraved in large format, such as Il fuoco eterno delle Vestali ( Draghi ) from 1674 and the Monarchia latina trionfante ( Dragh i / Schmelzer ) from 1678, also helped him to gain international renown. In 1688 the Swedish architect and art collector Nicodemus Tessn the Elder wrote. J. after a visit to Vienna:

With H. Burnacini, who is trusser and opponent of the Keijsser, I enjoyed every courtesy, in theaters and festivals it is now days that the biggest lumiers of all have.

Ticino also described the nature and characteristics of the famous theater, which had to be dismantled in 1683 shortly before the Turkish siege due to the risk of fire.

Burnacini as an architect

Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, design for the plague column in Vienna, before 1687. Vienna, Theater Museum.

In 1676/1677 Burnacini was commissioned to rebuild Laxenburg Castle and after the Turkish siege of 1683 he directed the rebuilding of Ebersdorf Castle.

In the mid-1980s he made designs for the Dreifaltigkeitssäule ( plague column ) on Wiener Graben , which were carried out in 1687 under his direction by the brothers Peter and Paul Strudel - with whom he was friends according to Ticino. In the Theater Museum in Vienna some sketches and drafts have been preserved to this project to date.

In the last decades of the 17th century in general, “almost all public and private monuments were created according to his ideas and designs”. Emperor Leopold entrusted him with the reconstruction of the destroyed Favorita, the building that would later become the Theresianium .

In 1698 Burnacini began building the flour pit on Neuer Markt together with Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach .

death

Lodovico Ottavio worked for the Viennese court for over 55 years and held his position until he died of pneumonia on December 12, 1707 at an advanced age in his house "zur golden pillar" on Vienna's Judenplatz .

Honors and Salary

From February 1, 1665, Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini received a modest annual salary of 600 florins (Angelini, like Giovanni Burnacini, received 720 florins). This salary was increased by 300 florins in 1671 and by a further 180 florins in 1678. With these 1,080 florins per year, he was confirmed in his office by his son and successor Joseph I after the death of Emperor Leopold I.

In 1677 he was granted the dignity of an imperial court seat, in 1702 the baron class and in 1706 - a year before his death - the title of cupbearer.

Family and marriages

Samantha Santi o De Santi, Rudi Risatti: Family tree of the Burnacini family based on Biach-Schiffmann 1931. New findings in green. State of research: 2019.

The grandfather Lodovico Ottavios and the progenitor of the Burnacini family was the artilleryman ("Bombardino") Lodovico from Cesena , who married a not further identified Giustina. Based on archival sources, it is known that he served as an artilleryman not only in the military, but also for festivals - e.g. B. during the visit of the papal legate Cardinal Alessandro Orsini in 1621 in Cesena - illuminations and fireworks prepared and fired. The artistic talent of the family can therefore also be traced back to him.

Grandfather Lodovico and grandmother Giustina gave birth to five children: Francesco, Lodovico Ottavio's father Giovanni , Santa, Marcantonio and Nicola.

Giovanni married a certain Grazia in 1630 and, as far as the sources so far, had five children from their marriage: Giustina, Lodovico Ottavio, Costanza, Giacomo and Antonio Felice. It seems likely that in addition to Giovanni and Lodovico Ottavio, other members of the family were artistically gifted and took part in the work in the workshop. This is what Lodovico Ottavio's statements in letters, as well as some drawings with different handwriting, suggest.

Lodovico Ottavio married three times: (date?) Ursula Katharina Fenkhin († 1673), 1673 Maria Regina Langetlin († 1678) and 1680 Julia Sidonia Elisabeth von Dornwangen († 1732). There were no children from these three marriages. The last wife, who had brought a rather respectable trousseau, was the only heir, according to the will. The only condition was that she take a not further known niece of Lodovico Ottavio named Sofia, daughter of one of his brothers, under her care.

Graphic work

Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, Twelve grotesques from the group "Nani e Maschere ridicole", late 17th century Vienna, Theater Museum.

Prints by or based on Burnacini's designs can be found in libraries, museums and archives around the world. The approx. 410 sheet collection of hand drawings from his artistic estate is in the holdings of the Theater Museum in Vienna. Thematically, the pictorial work, divided into two large series, includes numerous costume designs for festivals of the court society (called by Burnacini "Maschere", with inventory abbreviation Min 20 ) and then, in the series of "loose leaves" (with inventory abbreviation Min 29 ) figurines for the Commedia dell ' arte and grotesques, theater decorations, floats, festival sledges, allegorical, mythological, sacred compositions and figures, architectural designs for various buildings and monuments, designs for centerpieces, candelabra and ornate vessels, nature studies, landscapes and genre scenes.

After a general introduction, a recent publication by the Theater Museum presents approx. 125 sheets of Burnacini in detail, which are related to the subjects of comedy and the grotesque .

Literature (chronological)

  • Rudi Risatti (Ed.): Grotesque Comedy in Drawings by Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636–1707). Hollitzer, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-99012-614-1 .
  • Andrea Sommer-Mathis - Daniela Franke - Rudi Risatti (ed.): Spettacolo barocco! Triumph of the theater , Imhof, Vienna (exhibition catalog Theatermuseum) 2016.
  • Andrea Sommer-Mathis: Festival and fortress. The Viennese castle fortifications as a building site for dance halls and opera houses in the 16th and 17th centuries , in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kunst und Denkmalpflege 64, 2010, pp. 83–92.
  • Otto G. Schindler: Comici dell'Arte alle Corti Austriache degli Asburgo and Da Arlecchino a Kasperl. "Il Basilisco di Bernagasso" nei paesi di lingua tedesca . In: Alberto Martino - Fausto de Michele (ed.): La ricezione della commedia dell'arte nell'Europa centrale 1568–1769. Storia, testi, iconografia . Pisa - Rome 2010, pp. 69-143 and 273-322.
  • Samantha Santi o De Santi: Giovanni Burnacini (1610–1655) architetto e scenografo cesenate, diploma thesis University of Bologna (supervision: Elena Tamburini, subject: art history), Bologna 2006/2007 (since 2018 also available in the library of the Theater Museum in Vienna).
  • Otto G. Schindler: Domenico Biancolelli e la rappresentazione del "Convitato di pietra" a Vienna (1660) . In: Commedia dell'arte. Annuario internazionale 1, 2008, pp. 161–180.
  • Andrea Sommer-Mathis: Celebrations at the Viennese court under the government of Emperor Leopold I and his first wife Margarita Teresa (1666–1673) . In: Fernando Checa Cremades (ed.): Arte Barroco e ideal clasico. Aspectos del arte cortesano de la segunda mitad del siglo XVII, Madrid 2004, pp. 240-244.
  • Andrea Sommer-Mathis: Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, scenografo e costumista di Antonio Draghi . In: Emilio Sala - Davide Daolmi (ed.): "Quel novo Cario, quel divin Orfeo". Antonio Draghi da Rimini a Vienna. Atti del convegno internazionale (Rimini, Palazzo Buonadrata, 5-7 ottobre 1998) (ConNotazioni, vol. 7), Lucca 2000, pp. 397-410.
  • Otto G. Schindler: "Mio compadre Imperatore". Comici dell'arte at the Habsburg courts . In: Maske and Kothurn 38, Heft 2-4, 1997, pp. 25-154.
  • Herbert Seifert: The Sig-resplendent wedding god. Wedding celebrations at the Viennese Imperial Court 1622–1699 (dramma per musica, vol. 2), Vienna 1988.
  • Jean-Marie Valentin: "Il Pomo d'Oro" et le mythe impérial Catholique à l'époque de Léopold Ier. In: XVIIe Siècle 36, 1984, pp. 17-36.
  • Sabine Solf: Festive decorations and the grotesque. The Viennese set designer Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini. Staging of baroque art performance (Studies on German Art History, Vol. 355), Baden-Baden 1975.
  • Margaret Dietrich: Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini. In: Walter Pollak (Ed.): A thousand years of Austria. A biographical chronicle . Volume 2. Vienna / Munich: Jugend & Volk 1973, pp. 255 ff.
  • Flora Biach-Schiffmann: Giovanni and Ludovico Burnacini. Theater and festivities at the Viennese court (= work of the 1st Art History Institute of the University of Vienna [Lehrkanzel Strzygowski] Volume 43). Krystall-Verlag, Vienna / Berlin 1931.
  • Albert Ilg: A portrait of Burnacini . In: Monthly Gazette of the Altertums-Verein zu Wien 6 (1889), pp. 18 ff., 32.

Web links

Commons : Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinrich Kábdebo: For developmental history of Decorations- (architectural) painting in Vienna . In: Austrian Art Cronik . tape II , no. 4 . Vienna June 15, 1879, p. 62 f .
  2. ^ Albert Ilg: The fishermen from Erlach . Publisher by Carl Konegen, Vienna 1895, p. 77, 79 .
  3. ↑ a b c Samantha Santi o De Santi: The Burnacini, a dynasty of theater engineers. New discoveries about their origins . In: Rudi Risatti (Ed.): Grotesque Comedy in the Drawings of Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636-1707) . Hollitzer, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-99012-614-1 , p. 39-61 .
  4. ^ A b Claudia Contin Arlecchino, Rudi Risatti, Andrea Sommer-Mathis, Luca Fantinutti: Catalog . In: Rudi Risatti (Ed.): Grotesque Comedy in Drawings by Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636–1707). Hollitzer, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-99012-614-1 .
  5. ↑ a b Engraving "Trionfo des SS. Sacramento". Retrieved January 7, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Baumann: Fastnacht and Lent 1653. In: Karl Möseneder (Hrsg.): Feste in Regensburg. From the Reformation to the present. Regensburg 1986, p. 213-219 .
  7. ↑ a b Andrea Sommer-Mathis: A short biography . In: Rudi Risatti (Ed.): Grotesque Comedy in the Drawings of Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636-1707) . Hollitzer, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-99012-614-1 , p. 16 .
  8. ^ Andrea Sommer-Mathis: Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini and the Commedia dell'arte at the Viennese court . In: Rudi Risatti (Ed.): Grotesque Comedy in Drawings by Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini (1636–1707). Hollitzer, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-99012-614-1 , p. 63-80 .
  9. ↑ Theatrum Europæum . tape VII . Frankfurt am Main 1663, p. 343 .
  10. ^ Franz Hadamowsky: Baroque theater at the Vienna Imperial Court. With a game plan (1625–1740) . In: Yearbook of the Society for Vienna Theater Research . Born 1951/52. Vienna 1955, p. 7-117 .
  11. ^ Otto G. Schindler: "Mio compadre Imperatore". Comici dell'arte at the Habsburg courts. In: Mask and Kothurn . tape 38 , issue 2-4. Vienna 1997, p. 25–154, here: 78 .
  12. ↑ Marko Deisinger: Secular pleasure, the Jesuits and a spectacular accident in the theater. Andrea D'Orso's Commedia dell'arte troop at the Viennese imperial court 1660. In: Early modern information . Vol. 27. Vienna, 2016, p. 18-34 .
  13. ^ Herbert Seifert: The opera at the Viennese imperial court in the 17th century . In: Viennese publications on music history . tape 25 . Tutzing 1985, p. 445, 650 .
  14. ^ Otto G. Schindler: Domenico Biancolelli e la rappresentazione del "Convitato di pietra" a Vienna (1660) . In: Commedia dell'arte. Annuario internazionale 1 . 2008, p. 161-180 .
  15. ↑ Komödienhaus (theater on the Cortina). Retrieved January 16, 2020 .
  16. ↑ a b Merit Laine, Börje Magnusson (ed.): Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. Sources - Works - Collections. Travel Notes 1673-77 and 1687-88 . Stockholm 2002, p. 411 .
  17. ^ Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini. In: Vienna History Wiki. Accessed in 2015 .
  18. ↑ Alexander Hajdecki: Sources on the history of the city of Vienna. I. Department: registers from domestic and foreign archives with the exception of the archives of the City of Vienna . tape VI. , Reg. 6275-14352. Vienna 1908, p. 304, reg. 11669 .
  19. ↑ Michael Hochedlinger, Irmgard Pangerl: "My last will". Wills and estate treatises of cultural and historical significance in Vienna archives (16th – 18th centuries) . Vienna 2004, p. 49-52 .
personal data
SURNAME Burnacini, Lodovico Ottavio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian architect, graphic artist, set and costume designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1636
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Venice
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1707
Place of death Vienna